“That’s the difference between us.”

Alexandra Breckenridge, who plays big city escapee Mel Monroe in Netflix’s hit drama series Virgin River, has shared why she thinks her character will be a perfect mum.

The star spoke to Parade about Mel’s potential parenting skills ahead of the release of Virgin River season four, which sees the character come to terms with her pregnancy and the paternity cliffhanger that stunned viewers at the end of season three.

She said: “I think that Mel is an extremely patient person. I think that her patience as far as mothering goes will be phenomenal.”

“She’s obviously very nurturing and she’s a caregiver by nature, but I think the patience is what eclipses Mel. You see it with her and Jack throughout the season. Even though she gets very frustrated with him she’s always able to come back to being patient.”

Breckenridge, who has two children of her own, also compared her own parenting style to Mel’s, saying: “I’ve worked on my patience. I’ve gotten much more patient as I have been a mother.

“I think that that’s innate in Mel, it just comes to her, she is that way. That’s the difference between us.”

Speaking more broadly about Mel’s journey during season four, the actress touched on a similarity between her Virgin River character and her role as Sophie in NBC’s This Is Us.

“[In season four] we get to dive a little bit more into understanding where she’s coming from as a person and a character and more of what makes her tick from her childhood, which I always find fascinating,” she said.

“That’s what had originally drawn me into doing This Is Us because that’s really what that show is sort of all about.”

Breckenridge played Sophie, Kevin Pearson’s (Justin Hartley) childhood love and first wife, on This Is Us throughout the show’s first two series until the characters’ divorce.

Looking forward, it’s not entirely clear when fans will get to see Mel’s mothering skills in action.

Virgin River’s official Instagram account confirmed recently that production had begun on the next batch of episodes, although no official release date for season five has been given.